In the car on the way back, Bai Liu, sitting in the passenger seat, briefly explained his plans for the League.

“You want to participate this year?” Tang Erda frowned.

“I also think it’s too rushed. There are only two months left, and Bai Liu, you and Mu Ke are still short forty-eight and forty-nine game registration entries for the League.” Liu Jiayi lay across the back seat, looking utterly speechless. “I think even getting registered will be difficult for the two of you.”

Bai Liu turned slightly to look at Tang Erda, who was sitting directly behind him. “Does Captain Tang have any good suggestions? If you were leading us, what is the fastest speed at which a dungeon could be cleared?”

Tang Erda’s frown deepened. “I don’t understand your situation yet, so I can’t estimate...”

Bai Liu changed the way he asked. “If it were just you, in a Level 3 dungeon, using reality as the time dimension, what is your fastest clearance speed?”

Tang Erda answered without hesitation. “Thirty-one minutes.”

Liu Jiayi, who was drinking water in the back seat, started coughing violently. Mu Ke, in the driver’s seat, let the steering wheel slip and nearly drove the car off the road.

They questioned him in unison. “How did you do it that fast?!”

Damn, what kind of monster was this guy?! Clearing a Level 3 game in thirty-one minutes?!

“To convert time inside the game dimension into the reality dimension, it has to be converted twice,” Tang Erda explained in a deep voice. “First, it converts into the System Lobby’s time dimension, and then from the system’s dimension time into reality time.”

“The conversion from game time to System Lobby time isn’t based on how much time actually passed in the game. It’s calculated through the game’s three different endings.”

Tang Erda gave an example. “A game has three different endings: [bad end], [normal end], and [true end].”

“[bad end] converts into invalid dimension time. In other words, if a player reaches a [bad end], dies, or becomes a monster in the game, then from the moment he entered the game, his time becomes invalid. It stays completely stagnant inside the game and can no longer continue converting into dimension time or reality time.”

“And the [true end] Bai Liu usually reaches converts into dimension time that is generally the longest possible game duration. Converted into System Lobby time, it is usually 3.5 to 5.5 dimension hours. Converted further into reality time, it is generally between twenty-one and twenty-seven hours.”

Bai Liu stroked his chin, lost in thought. “Is there a fixed scale for converting dimension time into reality time?”

Tang Erda shook his head. “No. The conversion from dimension time to reality time seems to follow a pattern, but that pattern is fluid. It stays consistent for a period of time, then changes in the next. Right now, I haven’t figured out a fixed ratio. I can only estimate.”

Bai Liu narrowed his eyes. “This fluid, uncertain law of time conversion between reality and the system...”

—Wasn’t it exactly the same as the law of time conversion between the game dungeons and the System Lobby?

Adding in what Bai Liu had previously seen in [Future], he could basically determine that [Reality] was also a certain game dungeon dimension.

If [Reality] was also a game dungeon within the system, then the standard for time conversion between [Reality] and the system should likewise be the different [end] routes.

The fact that the system and [Reality] maintained a certain time conversion law for a period should mean that, during that period, players were walking along a fixed [end] route. When the players changed their game path and moved to another [end] route, the conversion rules with system time would change accordingly.

—So right now, in this [Reality] dungeon, which [end] game path was he walking?

[true end], [normal end], or [bad end]?

“The fastest way to clear a game is to take the [normal end] route,” Tang Erda continued. “Do not explore any Monster Books. Do not search for any clearance clues. Just directly kill the final boss, fulfill the task conditions, and clear the game through brute force. My fastest record is seventeen minutes in a Level 2 single-player dungeon.”

Liu Jiayi lay on the seat with an expression that said she had lost all hope in life.

Seventeen minutes for a Level 2 dungeon...

With this level of clearance speed, even while leading four others, two months was more than enough time to bring all of them into the League.

A powerhouse of the League was truly terrifying.

“But two months is still too tight if you want to participate in the League,” Tang Erda warned seriously. “Even if you obtain the registration qualification, your quality is still far too low compared to League players. More important than obtaining the registration qualification is training.”

“After obtaining the registration qualification, you must train at least sixty more times in the Game Pool to gain a basic understanding of the League’s game dungeons and rules before you can compete.”

Liu Jiayi raised her hand to add, “Besides that, popularity is also very important. You need to pull votes outside the game, get the audience to support you, and have them vote and ‘charge’ for you. Only players who break into the top one hundred of the popularity rankings during Support Season can obtain the League’s [Death-Exemption Gold Medal].”

“What are the Game Pool and the Death-Exemption Gold Medal?” Mu Ke asked, feeling a little dizzy.

As a rookie player, he had only just managed to figure out the basic rules of the Game Lobby. When it came to the specific regulations of the League, he was far less informed than an old hand like Tang Erda or a trained player like Liu Jiayi.

Liu Jiayi seemed to realize this too and massaged her forehead with a headache. “Oh right, I forgot you guys are still rookies. Listen carefully. The [Game Pool] is a brand-new zone. Only players who have successfully registered for the League can enter it. It’s generally used for internal training by League players.”

Tang Erda nodded in agreement with Liu Jiayi’s explanation. “This zone has independent game selection screens, game entrance ports, and game exit ports. The games played in this zone are not displayed to outside audiences, so there are no small TVs. It is also known as the [Non-Small TV Zone].”

“—Furthermore, players can exit games played in this zone at any time.” Liu Jiayi raised one finger, her expression rarely this serious. “This is also the most special thing about this zone. The system provides a certain degree of protection for players who have successfully registered for the League, and the concrete manifestation of this protection mechanism is the existence of the [Game Pool] zone.”

“To ensure that registered League players can successfully participate in the League, these players carry out game training inside the [Game Pool] before the League officially begins. When they sense mortal danger, they only need to pay a certain amount of points to exit the game.”

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow. “It seems the League is truly important to the system.”

—Important enough that it would actually create a training zone where it gave up harvesting players’ souls, all to ensure that these players could smoothly participate in the League.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Tang Erda warned in a deep voice. “The reason this mechanism exists in the game zone is because the games inside are Level 3 dungeons directly linked to the League. Many people die before they even have time to exit.”

“Exactly.” Liu Jiayi nodded repeatedly, her expression solemn. “I heard from Hearts that the competitive dungeons for the League each year are randomly drawn from the Game Pool. They’re really difficult. To ensure a certain level of familiarity with how these dungeons operate, members of many large guilds will immediately grind through fifty-two dungeons after the previous year’s League ends, then enter the [Game Pool] for high-intensity training.”

“Is that why we don’t see members of the big guild teams outside?” Mu Ke asked.

“The only ones you can see in the [Small TV Zone] are the celebrity players pushed out by the guilds for commercial operations. You won’t see these team members who basically spend all year training in the [Game Pool] and are even stronger,” Tang Erda said calmly.

Liu Jiayi retorted, “But that doesn’t mean the celebrity players are weak. On the contrary, most of them are incredibly strong.”

Mu Ke was stunned. “Celebrity players?”

Bai Liu took a pen and paper from the glove compartment, briefly wrote down several keywords, and circled the keyword [Death-Exemption Gold Medal]. Then he asked, “The existence of celebrity players is related to the Death-Exemption Gold Medal, right?”

Tang Erda was silent for a moment before saying, “Yes.”

“Although games in the Game Pool can be exited at any time, games in the League cannot be exited before a winner is decided. That means the losing side will basically be wiped out.”

Bai Liu’s pen tip tapped twice on the word [Cost-effectiveness]. He lowered his eyes and said softly, “—But this is a League. If the losing side is wiped out, that means one team disappears after every match. The competition wouldn’t be able to continue, and there would be no way to maximize the League’s profits by inducing the audience to gamble and ‘charge’ based on emotional support for a specific team.”

“Under these circumstances, a prop designed to protect players with higher popularity and greater value—the League’s [Death-Exemption Gold Medal]—was born.”

Liu Jiayi sighed. “That’s basically it. After a player obtains a [Death-Exemption Gold Medal], once their HP or mental value drops to a dangerous level during a match, the system will automatically force them to exit the game.”

“The [Death-Exemption Gold Medal] is obtained based on popularity value, which is your support rate from the audience. This is also the origin of Support Season. Two months before the League begins, the major guilds start frantically promoting their teams while making celebrity players work like crazy.”

“Basically, if a team has one or two extremely dazzling celebrity players, the other members of the team don’t have to worry about their [Death-Exemption Gold Medal] issues. The celebrity players’ fans will ‘charge’ and vote for the entire team, ensuring they can attack recklessly in the League without worries.”

Liu Jiayi began counting on her fingers. “For example, Hearts from the Kings’ Guild, Spades from Killer Sequence, Charles from the Gamblers’ League, George from Golden Dawn, and the Nimrod Inquisitor from the Deer Hunters—but that guy transferred to Killer Sequence this year.”

Liu Jiayi held up two fingers near Bai Liu. “So Killer Sequence has two celebrity players this year. Their guild didn’t even bother to ‘open for business’ during Support Season because, with that lineup, they don’t have to worry about [Death-Exemption Gold Medal] issues at all.”

“But—” Liu Jiayi withdrew her fingers with a pained expression. “In our guild, only I count as half a celebrity player. It’s going to be a big problem for you guys to get [Death-Exemption Gold Medals]. We need to think of a way to help you ‘market’ yourselves and gain fans...”

“Things given by outsiders don’t matter. The League depends on one’s own strength,” Tang Erda corrected Liu Jiayi coldly.

Liu Jiayi’s eyes widened. She disdainfully took out a pair of goggles, put them on, and used an extremely caustic gaze to size Tang Erda up from head to toe.

She sneered. “With your appearance, I can understand your jealousy toward me because you can’t become a celebrity player and can’t get a Death-Exemption Gold Medal.”

Tang Erda indeed did not look great at the moment. He was unshaven, dressed in tattered clothes, his eyes bloodshot, and he smelled of a strange mixture of roses and flesh that made people nauseous. He looked both decadent and slovenly. Sitting restrained in the back seat, he looked very much like a large stray dog Bai Liu had picked up off the street after it had been wandering for more than half a year.

Tang Erda opened his mouth, seeming to want to say something else, but when he looked at Liu Jiayi, who was only as tall as his waist even while sitting, he seemed to feel that arguing with a little girl was beneath him. He turned his head and looked coldly out the window, no longer responding to Liu Jiayi.

Liu Jiayi gave a victorious “hmph,” leaned over Bai Liu’s backrest, and continued chattering. “Don’t listen to his nonsense, Bai Liu. The [Death-Exemption Gold Medal] is very important. Hearts showed me a summary report of League mortality rates. Teams with celebrity players have significantly higher overall survival rates than other teams.”

When survival rates were mentioned, Tang Erda’s hand clenched in empty air. His expression turned cold and solemn, yet his gaze was somewhat dazed—perhaps what Liu Jiayi said was true...

Back then, he had insisted that strength was supreme and hadn’t done any marketing, instead making the entire team train frantically in the Game Pool. When they faced Bai Six, the result had been the entire team dying except for him. But the ironic thing was that he was the one who had possessed a Death-Exemption Gold Medal...

Bai Liu wrote the words [Celebrity Player] in the small notebook he had picked up and put a medium-sized question mark beside them.

“I understand the importance of celebrity players, but cultivating one isn’t a simple task, right?” Bai Liu looked sideways at Liu Jiayi, who was leaning against his backrest. “I’m guessing most celebrity players are celebrity players because they once had extremely dazzling performances in the League, right?”

“Relying solely on performance in the [Small TV Zone], I think it’s very difficult to create a celebrity player with a massive fan base—for example, you, Jiayi.”

Bai Liu used his pen to trace the outline of Liu Jiayi’s face from a distance and calmly stated the facts. “You have a face that easily makes people feel favorable toward you, a skill with a very high degree of uniqueness, and a top-tier large guild that poured its full effort into creating hype for you, with a second-ranked celebrity player paving the way.”

“You have gathered the greatest advantages and gimmicks available to a player who hasn’t participated in the League yet. But can you guarantee that you’ll obtain a Death-Exemption Gold Medal as soon as you participate?”

Liu Jiayi was stunned.

Bai Liu asked calmly, “You can’t, right?”

“On this point, I agree with Captain Tang’s idea. For a team like ours, which mainly consists of rookies, working hard on strength—something we can obtain ourselves—is more cost-effective than working hard on popularity, which is something granted by others. The League is essentially a contest of strength, not popularity. Therefore, our focus for the next two months will be training in the Game Pool.”

Bai Liu made the final decision. After glancing at Liu Jiayi, who was propping up her chin in shock and daze, and then at Tang Erda, who had inconspicuously breathed a sigh of relief, Bai Liu showed that kind of smile that made one’s heart turn cold.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on attracting the audience. Before entering the Game Pool, we still have nearly fifty games to play in the [Small TV Zone].”

“We must use these fifty games to do everything we can to attract the audience’s support.”

Bai Liu’s gaze lingered for a moment on Tang Erda’s hair, which had clumped together. “Let’s start by turning our Captain Tang into a handsome man suitable for marketing.”

Tang Erda: “...????”

—

Mu Shicheng ran out of the factory’s back door, coughing. Only after confirming that the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau’s team had completely taken over the inverted Inner World factory and controlled the factory manager who was preparing to flee did he sneak out, get on his motorcycle, and ride away.

Putting on his motorcycle helmet and his single-ear monkey Bluetooth headset, Mu Shicheng dialed Bai Liu’s number as he sped along, feeling incredibly anxious.

Bai Liu, that guy, had gone out and declared that he was the bomber, leaving Mu Shicheng in the relatively safe Inner World to stall for time.

He didn’t know whether those insane bureau members would do anything to Bai Liu after taking him into custody!

The last time Bai Liu came out, it had felt as though he had lost half his life!

Although Bai Liu kept saying that he had a way to handle it, he was just an ordinary person in the real world. How many ways could he possibly have against such a large organization?!

Mu Shicheng took a deep breath and waited anxiously for the call to connect. As soon as it was picked up, he couldn’t wait to ask, “Bai Liu, are you okay?! Where are you?”

“I’m fine,” Bai Liu’s unhurried voice came from the other end. “Right now, I’m...”

Before he could finish, a hysterical roar of resistance sounded from the background and interrupted him. “Get away from me! What are you doing to me?! I’m not doing this!!”

Mu Shicheng was a little dazed. He recognized that the voice just now belonged to Tang Erda. He slowed his motorcycle and asked hesitantly, “You guys got Tang Erda out of the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau, and you even controlled him?”

Bai Liu looked at Tang Erda, who was tied to a hair-washing chair, his head covered in foam as he struggled violently. “You could understand it that way.”

“Let me go!!” Tang Erda looked at the beautician approaching him with a black tape-like object, his eyes full of horror. “Let me down!”

“...” Mu Shicheng felt both schadenfreude and a complicated mix of emotions. “What are you doing to him? Are you torturing him? This is the real world, Bai Liu. Don’t go too far.”

Bai Liu tried to explain. “—I’m not torturing Tang Erda.”

A muffled groan came from the background, the sound of a grown man being tormented to the extreme.

Mu Shicheng stopped his motorcycle, twelve-thousand percent unconvinced. “Then what are you doing to him?”

“Full-body beauty and hair salon treatment.” Bai Liu looked at Tang Erda’s legs, which were covered in hair-removal tape. “To be precise, waxing his leg hair.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The salon girl grabbed one end of the tape with a ferocious expression and ripped it downward without mercy—shhk.

Tang Erda clenched his fists and let out another suppressed groan. He looked at Bai Liu almost pleadingly, tears faintly appearing in his eyes. “—Why do I have to do this?!”

“I don’t know either.” Bai Liu shrugged. “Ask Mu Ke. He brought us to this beauty salon and ordered the highest-level beauty and hair package for you.”

Tang Erda looked at Mu Ke.

Mu Ke’s smile was as pleasant as a spring breeze. “This is the most powerful male celebrity beauty salon I know in the industry. Many high-popularity traffic stars come here for styling and beauty treatments. I thought that since we’re ‘opening for business’ anyway, this place might be suitable for you, Captain Tang.”

The salon girl chimed in repeatedly. “Exactly, exactly! The big star Zhao Muchi also gets his work done here. He’s been popular for many years! He had two hit dramas this year!”

As she spoke with a beaming smile, her hands showed no mercy at all as she ripped off another strip.

Tang Erda sucked in a breath of cold air and said with difficulty, “There’s no need to go this far. I don’t show my legs on TV...”

“I think it’s necessary. Who knows? Maybe there will be a day when you do show your legs.” Mu Ke took two steps forward, moving closer to Tang Erda, a friendly smile on his face. “We need to ensure that every part of your body can attract the audience.”

Showing legs on TV... attracting the audience...

The salon girl, looking at Tang Erda’s perfectly robust physique, couldn’t help letting her expression turn strange.

Mu Ke glanced back. After confirming that Bai Liu’s back was turned to him while he spoke on the phone with Mu Shicheng, he quickly lowered his head and whispered into Tang Erda’s ear, his smile not fading in the slightest. “When you were drowning Bai Liu back then, did you think it was unnecessary?”

Tang Erda stiffened almost imperceptibly.

After saying this, Bai Liu, who was on the phone with Mu Shicheng, turned around.

Mu Ke quickly stepped back and distanced himself from Tang Erda. Then he looked at Tang Erda’s tape-covered legs very gently and said softly, “—I ordered the highest-level package for you. Don’t be polite with me. I’ll cover all the costs. I specifically ordered the full-body semi-permanent manual hair removal for you. It’s a bit painful, but it’s effective.”

Mu Ke chuckled and patted Tang Erda’s reddened thigh. “After you become a big hunk, make sure to ‘open for business’ properly for our team, Captain Tang.”

Tang Erda, whose entire body was beginning to ache dully: “...”

The salon girl grabbed the tape near Tang Erda’s inner thigh and, while Tang Erda was distracted talking to Mu Ke, tore it down fiercely!

Looking at Tang Erda, who was gradually losing all signs of life in the chair, Bai Liu gave Mu Shicheng the location of the beauty salon with an expression of pity.

Mu Shicheng blankly removed his headset, which was continuously emitting various cries of pain and muffled groans.

—

Author’s Note:

Cosmetology Shop Assistant: The male-male couple is actually right beside me.

My Bestie: 6 looks like a kind-hearted person who picked up a stray dog and sent it to a beauty salon for a wash, cut, and blow-dry. I can even imagine 2 wearing the Metersbonwe clothes 6 bought for him, standing in front of the mirror and saying, “Heavens, the Metersbonwe that Duanmu Bai Liu bought for me is so high-class. The boy in the mirror looks like a different person—so handsome and noble.” And someone next to him agreeing, saying, “Heavens, you could simply enchant all the audience players! At the ball—no, in the game—they will definitely vote for you and charge for you, and ask you to dance!”

Me: You’re going to make me die laughing!!!